When the two puppies arrived at a makeshift shelter in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, their thin legs became deformed from exhaustion. They had been treading water for hours, struggling to survive as floods overwhelmed the city, turning the streets into rivers.
“We tried to get them to walk, but they couldn’t,” said Dr. Daniel Guimarães Gerardi, a volunteer veterinarian at the shelter. “Our hearts ache at times like these, for these poor animals who are suffering.”
Two days after being rescued, the 6-month-old dogs – one tiger-striped, the other jet black – were mostly dozing on donated blankets amid chew toys, still exhausted from their ordeal. When awake, they wobbled around the shelter on unsteady legs, tails wagging and ears flattened back.
They did not wear any badges and since they were found on May 21, no one had come to look for them. “We hope that if they have caregivers, they will be found,” Dr. Guimarães said. Otherwise, he added, the goal will be to find them a good, safe home.
More than a month after catastrophic floods After being hit by the south of Brazil, the worst disaster in its recent history, the region is still in shock. Floods submerged entire towns, destroyed bridges, closed an international airport and displaced nearly 600,000 people in Rio Grande do Sul state. At least 169 people have been killed and 56 are still missing.
Amid the turmoil, thousands of animals were separated from their owners and trapped by the floods. Dramatic scenes of dogs struggling to save themselves climb on roofs flooded houses and firefighters rescuing stranded animals, including a horse called Caramelo, made headlines around the world. (Caramelo finally found its owner).
Even as floodwaters recede, tens of thousands of people remain in temporary shelters, unable to return to their destroyed or damaged homes. And more than 12,500 pets have been rescued since the start of the crisis, according to state authorities.
Many of these animals do not have owners, said Fabiana de Araújo Ribeiro, who heads the Porto Alegre animal protection office.
Even when they do, “they have nowhere to return” because their homes have been destroyed, Ms. Ribeiro said.
And with water levels covering street signs and house numbers, rescue teams are struggling to accurately record where animals were rescued or who they might belong to.
Waves of homeless animals are common after natural disasters around the world, as owners are killed, separated from their pets, or forced into temporary shelters that do not accept animals.
Yet returning displaced animals is more complex in countries like Brazil than in the United States, where best practices often include methodically recording animals’ whereabouts and setting up helplines centralized telephone lines to help owners find their pets, said Joaquin de la Torre Ponce, Latin America director for Latin America. the International Fund for Animal Welfare, a non-profit organization based in Washington.
It is also more common in the United States than in many parts of Latin America for owners to implant tracking chips in their pets, making reunions easier, animal welfare advocates said.
And stray animals are more prevalent in Latin America, where animals are often fed and cared for by an entire block, Mr. Ponce said.
“These community dogs and cats do not have a specific owner,” he said. “So no one will come looking for them in a scenario like this.”
Under the leaky roof of an abandoned warehouse in Canoas, a town neighboring Port Alegre, some 800 rescued dogs shuffled, whined and barked in makeshift kennels constructed from wooden pallets.
The space had been transformed into a makeshift shelter by volunteers, who worked in shifts to register, feed, care for and care for the animals. Few of the animals had names, but each crate had a number, scribbled on cardboard by shelter workers.
Many were rescued by rescue teams after spending days or even weeks stranded on roofs, in trees or in flooded homes. Some arrived injured or sick, and most were severely malnourished.
A few, like Gigante, an older Labrador wearing a pink shirt stamped with red hearts, had been dropped off by owners who were forbidden from taking their animals to the temporary shelters they now called home.
In one corner, a muscular white and brown mutt was pulling on a chain leash, showing sharp teeth. He had largely recovered from a gash on his snout, volunteers said, but he had been worried since floods inundated his home and sent his owner to the hospital.
Further into the warehouse, a calm Rottweiler lay curled up in the back corner of his kennel, his head resting on his paws. Firefighters had found him swimming in the streets of Canoas two weeks earlier, shaking and agitated.
In recent days, another heavy rain caused turmoil at the shelter. When the rain started, the dogs tried to climb onto the roofs of their kennels. “They get nervous when they see the water,” said Celso Luis Vieira, 74, a volunteer. “They think the place is about to flood.”
On a recent weekday morning, Sérgio Hoff was wandering the warehouse looking for his missing pets. When he evacuated his Canoas home with his wife and 9-year-old daughter in early May, the family had to leave behind their five dogs and three cats.
“My wife was panicked; she didn’t want to leave them,” said Mr. Hoff, 39, a banker. “But we just couldn’t take them with us. It was chaos.
The family let the animals loose in their yard, hoping they would climb to higher ground if the waters rose. They never imagined the floodwaters would submerge their entire home.
Mr. Hoff eventually found two of his dogs at a shelter on the other side of Canoas, which gave him hope that the others might have survived as well. But after weeks of searching other animal shelters and browsing social media, he still hadn’t found the rest of the animals.
“Frustration is the only word that describes it,” he said after another unsuccessful shelter visit. “But we’re not going to give up.”
Back at the Porto Alegre shelter, a 2-year-old black mutt named Ticolé had better luck.
Frightened by the current of water invading his neighborhood, the dog broke away from his home and fled, just as his owners were preparing to flee. After two weeks, his owner, Jorge Caldeira Santos, finally found him.
“I found him,” he said, taking Ticolé out of the shelter.
